FA Cup: Whites face trip to City after eliminating Spurs

Leeds were rewarded for their victory over Tottenham with a trip to Barclays Premier League champions Manchester City in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Neil Warnock’s men knocked out Spurs 2-1 at Elland Road yesterday to book a trip to the Etihad Stadium in the pick of the ties.

Non-league Luton, who claimed a famous 1-0 win at Norwich on Saturday, missed out on a plum draw with a top Premier League side as they got Millwall at home.

Oldham, the League One side who stunned Liverpool 3-2, were handed their Merseyside rivals Everton at home in the next round.

Manchester United were drawn to face Reading at Old Trafford, while Arsenal also got a home tie, against Championship outfit Blackburn.

Chelsea, should they see off Brentford in a replay after the two sides drew 2-2 at Griffin Park today, can look forward to a trip to Middlesbrough.

QPR’s conquerors MK Dons were drawn at home to Barnsley, while Wigan will travel to Huddersfield or Leicester.

The ties will be played on the weekend of February 16.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, meanwhile, pointed the finger at the young players in his team after they were knocked out of the FA Cup by League One Oldham. The Reds were hardly in the game during the first half and trailed 2-1 and although the arrival of captain Steven Gerrard just before the hour-mark changed the momentum he could not produce another miraculous recovery.

Rodgers had made six changes from the team which demolished Norwich 5-0 last weekend but tellingly he left experienced players like Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Lucas Leiva and Stewart Downing on the bench.

Three changes were made to the back four - although it still had Slovakia international Martin Skrtel at its heart - and they looked helpless to stop Matt Smith scoring twice in the opening 45 minutes.

Rodgers said he wanted to give younger players experience - only Skrtel, Suarez and goalkeeper Brad Jones were aged over 23 - but when the result went against them it was them he criticised.

“We are bitterly disappointed. We started the first half poorly and we started the second half and got punished,” he said.

“We’ve got a big week of games but our mentality in that opening period was poor and it ended up costing us.

“I was disappointed with the young players today.

“We are trying to give them experience and let them see what it was like to play for Liverpool.

“It is not just about playing for Liverpool, you have to be competitive and be part of a group that is going to challenge for trophies.

“I thought how we reacted to that and how we performed, knowing that is what we are looking for, was disappointing. It is not enough to play for Liverpool and get up for the Arsenal and Manchester City games (later this week) because if we are going to win trophies you need to be able to come to places like Oldham and win and we weren’t good enough for that.

“We were just too much on the back foot early on, you really have to be aggressive.

“These are different games to the Premier League: Premier League games are nice, you go in and teams will pass the ball and give you time to get your shape.

“These games are a different type of football, you have to roll your sleeves up be strong and aggressive and unfortunately for us there were too many who were.

“It is just a different type of football where you have to stand up and be counted.

“It is great to put young players in but you have to have personality and the young players disappointed.”